[lit-ideas] "the Greek philosophy borrowed from the Egyptians"?
- From: Scribe1865@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 9 Apr 2004 00:56:37 EDT
In a message dated 4/8/2004 9:34:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx writes:
There is little in Western cultures that could not be traced back to
near-Eastern influences. The Greek philosophy
originally borrowed heavily from the Egyptians, the
Persians etc. It was later re-introduced in the West
through the Arabs.
While most people certainly know the indebtedness of the West to Arab
cultures for preserving Plato, et al., and for improving Hellenistic
mathematics,
such as giving verbal formulation to Greek geometric algebra (see _Greek
Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra_ by Jacob Klein) -- I don't
think your
first sentence above is true, but would be glad to be convinced that it is.
What do you mean by "the Greek philosophy"? Do you mean empiricism?
Or do you mean that the Golden Age Greek attitudes toward power and authority
were actually part of the culture of the ancient Near East? (If so, what is
your evidence?)
And by Persians and Egyptians, are you referring to the Greek Ptolemies and
Greek Seleucids of post-Alexandrian times or to the earlier cultures?
As for mass death being a Western specialty, one sees the same total
extermination of populations noted in the book of JOSHUA under the guise of
Holy War,
and by extension in Jihad, then later in western Crusade, to nuclear mutually
assured destruction, and to the genocides in Rwanda.
The West capitalized on Greek engineering, science, and math and amalgamating
that with the ancient near eastern notion, advanced in JOSHUA, of sacrificing
everything of one's enemy to the Lord-- built its Auschwitzes and H-bombs.
My post suggested that, if mankind in general were able to extract the
ancient near eastern borrowings from its mentality, its technologies might be
put to
better use.
My time is up,
Zorro
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